could hear Amy moving about in the trap, and presently her voice
came falteringly out through the chinks:

"No, there's no way out that I see. Can't you raise the door?"

"We'll try!" called Mollie. But the trouble was that there was no way of
getting a hold on the smooth planks.

"We must go for help!" decided Betty after a few ineffectual attempts.
"There is no use wasting time here."

"Oh, don't leave me!" cried Amy. "I can't stand it to be here alone!"

"Listen," said Betty. "Grace and I will go for help. It needs a man's
strength to raise this door. Mollie will stay and keep you company,
Amy. Grace and I will go to where the lumbermen are fishing. That is the
nearest place, and the boys may be there also. We'll be as quick as we
can."

"Please do!" urged Amy. "Oh, how silly of me to get caught like this!"

"You couldn't help it," said Betty. "Come on, Grace."

They started off over the snow, heading in as straight a line as
possible for the river. They knew they were near the place where they
had seen the fishing lumbermen, and they hoped to meet some of them
there now. The boys had said they were going there to learn the trick
of getting pickerel through the ice.

"Are you hurt, Amy?" asked Mollie, when she was left alone outside the
trap.

"No, not a bit; only a little scared," replied Amy.

"Well, you'll get over that. How did it happen? Was the trap baited?"

As Mollie asked this she thought of the possibility of the bear, for
which the trap evidently had been set, coming along. In that case her
position would be worse than that of Amy's who was effectually
protected.

"I'd be glad to be in the trap then myself," thought Mollie.

"No, I don't see any signs of bait," said Amy, looking about.

"Then what made the door fall down?"

"It seems to have been propped up with a stick," went on Amy. "When I
walked in, so foolishly, I must have knocked the stick down, and the
door fell. The prop is here. Oh, I'll never be so curious again!"

The two girls talked to each other to keep up their spirits, and
wondered how long Betty and Grace would be.

Meanwhile the two latter were having no easy time. They got into deep
drifts, and stumbled out again, tiring themselves greatly in the
process. Then they got off the trail, and wandered into the back
country. It was not until they got on a high bluff, and saw the river
below them, that they realized their mistake.

Then came a hard scramble down a snowy